Honestly, I don’t really like ripping people. Well yeah I do, but only if they truly deserve it in my mind. Otherwise, I don’t like bullies and I don’t like a lot of cheapshots (and I’ve taken my share in the past, and learned from it) and I prefer to speak highly of people if I can instead of negatively.

But you just have to tell what you feel is the truth, and that’s the grade I give Stoa for 2010-11. He could turn it all around in 2011-12, and if so, I’ll lavish kindness all over him via the keyboard.

I realize he played only 25 games for the Avs, and this is something of an “incomplete” grade to give. But it was a bad year all around for the former U of M standout. He was given a shot on the first line in training camp after Peter Mueller went down with a concussion, but went five games without a point in the exhibition season. He was promptly sent to Lake Erie, where he eventually posted 33 points (17 goals) in 48 games. He posted four in the 25 he played with the Avs.

Worse than the point total, though, was the lack of grit and toughness. He’s 6-foot-3, but too often played very small. Only 30 hits credited to him in those 25 games, with all of six blocked shots and 20 penalty minutes. If you’re not going to score, you’ve at least got to have some bigger numbers in the “grit and toughness” categories. Stoa didn’t have them.

Stoa’s contract is up. Based on the numbers, you’d have to be dubious if the Avs would give him a new one. But I distinctly recall, in my post-season, wrapup talk with GM Greg Sherman – I remember hearing him say Stoa’s name as what I interpreted as the “plan” going forward. I didn’t tape the conversation, though. It was informal. So maybe it won’t happen.

But if it does happen, the numbers need to be a whole lot better for Ryan Stoa. They can’t get much worse.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.